The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-01-06


years and you have not expressed it-what
they have lived on will live. o, what q
standard that is to measure mans life by!
There are those in this house who think they
have only lived thirty years. They will have
lived u thousand-they have lived thousand.
There are those who think they are eighty
years of age. They have not even entered
upon their infancy, for one must become
babe in Christ to begin at all.
Now, l do not know what your advantages
or disadvantages are; do not know what
your tact or talent is; do not know what
may be tho fascination of your manners or
the responsiveness of them; but / know this;
There is for you, my hearer, field to culture,
a harvest to reap, a tear to wipe away, soul
to save If you have worldly means, conse-
crate them to Christ. II you have eloquence,
use it on the side that Paul and Wilberforce
used theirs If you have learning, put it all
into the poor box of the worlds suffering.
But if you have none of these-neither wealth,
nor eloquence, nor learning-you at any rate
have a smile with which you can encourage
the disheartened, a frown with which you
may blast injustice, voice with which you
may call the wanderer back to God. "Oh,"
you say, "that is a very sanctiaonious view
of lifer 1t is not. It is the only bright
view of life, and it is the only bright view Of
death Contrast the death scene of man
who has measured life by the worldly stand
ard with the death scene of a man whc
has measured life by the Christian
standard Quinn, the actor, in his last
moments said: II hope this tragic scene viii
soon be over, and hope to keep my dignity
to the last.n Malherbe said in his last mo-
ments to his confessor: "Hold your tongue!
Your miserable style puts me out of conceit
with heaven" Lord Chesterfield In his last
moments, when he ought to have been pray
ing for his soul, bothered himself about the
proprieties of the sick room and said: "Give
Dayboles q chair" Godfrey Kneller spent
his last hours on earth in drawing diagram
of his own monument. Compare the silly
and horrible departure of such men with the
scraphic glow on the face of Edward Payson,
as he said ip his last mornents: "The breezes
of heaven fan me. float in sea Of glory"
Or, with Paul the Apostle, who said in his
last hour: II am now ready to be offered
up, and the time of my departure is at
hand 1 have fought the good fight, /
have kept the faith. Henceforth, there
is laid up for me crown of righteousness
which the Lerd, the righteous judge, will
give me-" Or compare it with the Christian
death bed that you witnessed in your own
household. Oh, my friends, this world is a
false god 1t will consume you with the
blaze in which it accepts your sacrifice, while
the righteous shall be held in everlasting re-
menabrance; and when the thrones have
fallen, and the monuments have crumbled
and the world has perished, they shall ban
quet with the conquerors of earth and the
herarchs of heaven.
This is good day in which to begin new
style of measurement. How old art thoui
You see the Christian way of measuring life
and the worldly way of measuring it.
leave it to you to say which is the wisest and
best way. The wheel of time has turned very
swiftly, and it has hurled us on. The old
year has gone. The new year has come For
what you and have been launched upon it,
God only knows.
Now let me ask you all: Have you made
any preparation for the futures You have
made preparation for time, my dear brother;
have you made any preparation for eternityi
Do you wonder than when that man on the
Hudson river, in indignation, tore up the
tract which was handel him, and just one
word landed on his coat sleeve-the rest of
the tract being pitched into the river, that
one word aroused his soul. 1t was that one
NOTu, 81 lOlS, 81 DIOcl, 81 SO UCcp.
eternity A dying woman, i'll her last mo-
menta, said: ''Call it backl" They said:
What do you wal...' ''Time," she said:
''call it back!" Oh, it cannot be called back!
We might lose our fortunes and call them
back; we might lose our health and perhaps
recover it; we might lose our good name and
get that back; but time gone is gone for ever.
Some of you, during the past year, made
ulyac
ference to you really, as to the matter Of
safety, whether you go now or go some other
year-whether this year or the next year.
Both your feet ON the rock, the waves may
dash around you. You can say: "God is our
refuge and strength-a very present help"
You are on the rock, and you may defy all
earth and hell to overthrow you. Icongratu-
late you. give you great joy. 1t is happy
New Year to you.
can see no sorrow at all in the fact that
our years are going You hear some people
say: II wish could go back again to boy
hood" ! would not want to go back again to
boyhood. I am afraid Tmight make worse
life out of it than | have made. You could
not afford to go back to boyhood if it were
possible. You might do great deal worse
than you have done. The past is gonet Look
out for the future!
70 all Christians, it is time of gladness. ]
am glad the years are going. You are com,
ing on nearer home. Let your countenance
light up with the thought. Nearer home
Now, when one can sooner get to the center
of things, is he not to be congratulated? Who
wants to be always in the freshman classs
We study God in this world by the biblical
photograph of Him; but we all know we can
in five minutes of interview with friend get
more accurate idea of him than we can by
studying him fifty years through pictures or
words. The little child that died at months
of age knows more of God than all Andover,
and all Princeton, and all New Brunswick,
and all Edinburgh, and all the theological
institutions in Christendom. Is il not
better to go up to the very headquarters OF
knowledge2
Does not our common sense teach US that
it is better to be at the center than to be clear
out ON the rim of the wheel, holding nervous
ly fast to the tire lest we be suddenly hurled
into light and eternal felicity? Through all
kinds of optical instruments trying to peer in
through the cracks and the keyholes OF
heaven-afraid that both doors of the celes.
tial mansion will be swung wide open before
our entranced vision-rushing about among
the apothecary shops of this world, wonder
ing if this is good for rheumatism and that is
| good for neuralgia, and something else is
| good for bad cough, lest we be suddenly
| ushered into q land of everlasting health
| where the inhabitant never says: Il an
sick"
What fools we all are to prefer the circum
| ference to the center. What dreadful thing
| it would be if we should be suddenly usheret
| from this wintry world into the May-time or
| chards of heaven, and if our pauperism of si1
and sorrow should be suddenly broken up by
presentation Of an emperors castle sur
rounded by parks with springing fountains
and paths, up and down which angels of Goo
walk two and two.
We are like persons standing on the colo
steps of the National picture gallery in Lon
don, under umbrellas. in the rain, afraid t.
go in amid the Turner's, and the Titians ant
the Raphaels. come to them and say
"Why don't you go inside the gallerya" "Oh,
they say, 1--WE dom. know whether we can ge